JCI's 2017 Impact Factor: 13.251

The Journal of Clinical Investigation’s 2017 Impact Factor is 13.251. This metric, published in Journal Citation Reports (JCR), places the JCI among the top journals in the JCR category of Medicine, Research & Experimental. The JCI’s 5-year Impact Factor is 14.434.

How the Impact Factor is calculated. The Impact Factor is a ratio calculated as the number of citations in a given year to articles published in the two previous years divided by the number of articles published in those years. Thus, the most recent Impact Factor represents citations in 2017 to articles published in 2015 and 2016; the 5-year Impact Factor represents citations in 2017 to articles published in 2012–2016.

Use of the Impact Factor. Because the Impact Factor is based on citations to many articles within a journal, the metric should be interpreted as an indicator of a journal’s overall relevance to researchers and not as an indicator of the relevance or quality of any single article or of the work performed by researchers represented in a journal.